This is the story of a powerful Goddess, Queen, Leader, Healer, and Magician who forgot who she was.
She was wandering through the desert in her grief. The love of her life, Osiris, was assassinated in broad daylight by their own brother, Set. The news found her when she was on a spiritual pilgrimage, in her Priestess duties, making offerings to a God of Fertility, Min. She was holding a prayer to receive a child, as her womb was not conceiving. Other women brought their newborn babies to her for a blessing, as she could read their destiny. The classic example of a powerful healer not being able to heal the barrenness of her own womb. But hey, have you seen a dentist fix his own teeth? Of course not.
The myth is not an old story that is forgotten. It is not something made up or untrue. A myth is a sacred story that cannot be forgotten. A myth is something that happens all the time, across all realities and timelines. When we hear a myth, its gift is that it helps us find our place in it.
When Isis was wandering in her shattering grief, she got lost. This is a powerful teaching for all of us, because when we feel vulnerable, we are exposed to the manevolent energies. Such as Set, the God of Chaos, destruction, egoism, and war. He was waiting for the moment to capture Isis. When he saw that she was so weak with grief, he lured her into a tower. He promised her rest and shelter, and in the end, imprisoned her.
Isis had many skills, and one of hers was weaving. She sat and weaved for hours that turned into days. Something about that simple, repetitive task of holding the strands of wool began to soothe her. Her dark thoughts fell away as she focused on one motion: making a beautiful tapestry. This makes me think of the gift of our inner feminine that can create beauty even in the darkest circumstances. The gifts won’t stop working, the talent does not disappear, and something gets created out of what presents itself in the moment.
Set felt victorious because finally, his competitor, the one who had the right to the throne, was under his thumb, working as a slave girl. He knows that every day she is there, she no longer feels like her former self, the Queen. She is not running to restore her queendom because she is exhausted. She does not feel like a leader, nor does she even know that her leadership is welcome to the people.
She is in exile. Away from her home, away from the beautiful gardens that she planted together with her beloved Osiris. Away from her service as a teacher and healer.
Weaving does not stop. This is the moment when she no longer remembers she is a Goddess. She no longer feels her Divine Mission as Isis incarnated to civilize early society and to become an illuminated culture.
She is trapped in the tower of limitation.
She is held back from fulfilling her mission.
She has no resources, no support, and all that mattered to her is gone.
This is the part of the myth that touches me deeply each time I revisit it.
When we see images of Isis with majestic wings, we remember that she was burned to ashes before she earned them.
Divine Feminine Leadership is a phoenix process, as the story of Isis tells us.
And then there was a Divine Intervention.
As it is always darkest before the dawn.
Isis’s teacher, Thoth, the God of Wisdom, reaches to her and illuminates her mind.
In a flash, she remembers and gets up. She looks around and wonders how long she spent there.
Thoth also sends her physical help. He sends her scorpions to clear the way out of the tower and lead her out safely. I love the symbolism of the scorpions because they often appear in advanced priestess magic. The Scorpio Goddess, Selket, is known for her protection magic.
In this part of the myth, we see how the Divine intervenes to help us, first by illuminating our minds. Second, in a physical way, helping us remove the obstacles and clear the path.
When Isis gets up, she knows who she is and where she is going.
She is returning to her mission as a leader for her people.
To me, this sacred story gives me a map for navigating the intense forgetting and the grief that overcomes you when you see the world's tragedies (that keep coming daily).
It is also a portal that I can enter. To connect with Isis’s spirit. To invoke her essence. To express her power through me.
The Gods are not just out there in the cosmic planes.
They are within us. In our cells and organs, waiting to be invoked through our words of power.
Myth is not an old story. A myth is a story that cannot be forgotten.
When we see the wings, let’s remember the ashes.
Our cosmic teachers are always near and intervene when it is time. They do not rescue us from our trials. They want us to live our myth fully. And in the thickness of the forgetting, the light of Wisdom (Thoth) touches our consciousness, and we remember the Goddess that is within us.
